Season two, episode six of Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso will likely be a return to form for many who were waiting for conflict and plot to start moving forward, especially since Richmond, as a team, starts coming together, but its steadfast coach begins to fall apart.

**Spoilers for Ted Lasso S2, E6.**

Bringing Roy Kent on as a coach has done great things for Richmond as a team. Roy, as a former player, understands the game very well, but also has great insight into what makes a great player. He can navigate each person with a deftness that we have seen hints of the entire series. The skills he acquired while teaching girls’ football with his niece have also made him great at being both vulgar and informative. He lets the team know he cares by giving clear, personal comments to each player.

I think bringing Roy on at this point was a great decision because I can see, following his retirement, why he’d want to stay clear of any professional work in football. It is bittersweet to be so close to the game and not be in the game, but after his commentator gig and helping out another player on the field, it is clear that Roy belongs as close to the game as possible.

Revisiting the tension between Roy and Jamie was already great. They have never truly gotten along, but when pushed to it, Roy helps Jamie by acknowledging that him being a prick (when necessary) is what elevates him from being a average player to a star. It works and helps lead them to victory, along with Nathan’s good call.

Let’s talk about Nathan.

Season one had Nathan playing the role of, to use the TV Tropes term, butt-monkey. He was mocked and picked on by his fellow teammates, timid, but very insightful. That is what made Ted and Beard decide to bring him a long as another coach. This season, he’s been an asshole. Picking on the new water boy, having a bloated sense of entitlement, and being intimidated and salty when Roy returns as a coach.

I can understand why, after years of being picked on wanting to be acknowledged, but I’m ready for someone to call him out for being a twat. He gets a moment to show his assertiveness when Ted leaves the field. Rather than be put on the defensive, Nathan makes a bold offensive strategy that pays off big time to a huge win for the team. It is a great moment for Nathan, and he is clearly loving the attention (that he has earned), but I also hope one of his male coworkers can take him to task.

Moving on to the man himself, Ted Lasso.

As someone who strives to be an optimist, Ted Lasso is a fascinating character. Many outlets have written about how, in the face of shows contemplating the role of the disillusioned, cynical white man of prestige TV past, Ted is just a nice dude—a nice, straight, white, cis dude, which, if you go some places online, people think we feminists locked in a dungeon many years ago.

Well, one got loose, and it’s Ted Lasso.

His kindness, while grating for some, really resonates with me. It’s like “What if Superman had no powers and became a football coach?” He is the heart of the story because he attends to everyone with a smile and compassion. Of course then, it serves to wonder: Who is that for Ted?

In some ways, it is Rebecca, one of the only people who has seen Ted in the middle of a panic attack and spends the Richmond victory searching for Ted in the locker room. The Christmas episode is all about her helping to take care of Ted, knowing he is going to be lonely on the holiday without his son and ex-wife. But even she can’t help if Ted won’t be honest about it.

As an audience, we’ve all known that Ted was going to end up on Dr. Fieldstone’s couch, but I don’t even think Ted knew when exactly that would happen—much less that it would happen when the team wins a huge game.

It also serves to note that the team won the game without Ted.

Ted, as a coach, is the glue and the heart. He has insight for sure, but he can also be passive. It is Roy and Nate who help to bring things to a close, and even in that, we see that Ted’s philosophy, while it has made the team a family, has not made them winners. Not fully. Not yet.

Going back to Rebecca, we have finally found out who she has been texting, and it is not Ted. (Although I still ship it.) It is Sam!!!!

I nearly screamed at my television when I saw that reveal.

Sam did note back in season one that Rebecca is attractive. Plus, I love how cute and fun he has been during their entire conversation. My initial feeling was how cute it would be to see them go on a date. But then, as I lay in bed getting wrecked by insomnia, I realized … wait, Rebecca is his boss.

Age differences are not a huge issue to me, but passive power imbalances are. While I know that Ted Lasso is not the kind of show where Rebecca would take advantage of Sam, it still doesn’t erase the fact that Sam is young, Black, Nigerian, and her employee.

Just earlier this season, she was put in a position where a sponsor requested she fire Sam for his political activism.

That is something to keep in mind even with the fact that, yes, Rebecca and Sam would absolutely be cute together. But if we are being critical of male boss–female employee work dynamics, we can’t just turn a blind eye to it when the genders are reversed. Context matters, and I hope Ted Lasso will handle this with grace and a lot of context.

(image: Apple TV+)

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